Worm farming

HOMEMADE WORM FARM My husband has been busy with his chain saw carpentry again. He rescued a shower base bathtub from the local tip to make a small worm farm that could be set up in a shady spot near the house. This makes it easier for me to collect worm castings for my seedlings and pot plants. Worm farms are a wonderful way to recycle food scraps and household waste into fabulous 100 % organic complete fertiliser with a neutral pH.
Old bathtubs are hard to come by in our area, as they are popular for recycling as water troughs for horses. However, this tub was missing the plug rim and unsuitable for use as a water trough, so it was a lucky find.
Using his trusty chain saw, Brian built a simple frame for the tub, using scrap hard wood pieces from around the farm. The cover consists of recycled hardwood planks, placed side by side, across the top of the farm. Only the two end planks are attached to the frame. The loose planks allow me to expose as much, or as little, of the worm farm surface as I want when adding food or collecting castings. A large square of fly screen was placed across the base of the tub before filling to prevent the worms and castings falling through the drainage hole. A bucket is positioned under the drainage hole of the tub to catch the liquid that drains from the worm farm.

A layer of edible bedding is needed across the bottom of the farm container for to keep the worms damp and protect them from temperature fluctuations. I added some of the digested matter from our main worm farm for bedding as this contained both worms and worm eggs to ensure that numbers in the new worm farm will build up more quickly. However, for new worm farmers, bedding can be shredded and soaked coconut husk fibre (Coco peat), or damp, aged cow or horse manure, and the starter worms are placed over the bedding where you want them to feed. I added some chopped scraps (in a 2-cm layer) to one half of the surface of the farm, so that the worms would be concentrated in that area. The surface of the farm was then covered with wet newspaper and the cover planks over the top of the farm. (A temporary plastic cover goes on when heavy rain is predicted.) Food is replaced as often as necessary. If your worm farm is new, don’t give them too much food at first or it will be a while before they eat all the food, and it will start to smell. But, if you don’t give your worms enough to eat, their growth and reproduction will be slow.

As worm numbers increase, they will be able to process larger quantities of waste. Once the worms have turned the food and bedding in their area into castings, I start putting food at the other end of the farm. This allows me to collect castings more easily from the other half and pour water through the processed bedding to collect some liquid for my plants. It is not recommended to pour water through undigested food in worm farms in case the food has been affected by fungal or bacterial disease. However, using common sense and following the organic principle of “feed the soil, not the plant”, avoids problems with liquid fertilisers.

5 Responses to Worm farming

Great post, thanks.
I love my worm farm. They have multiplied so many times in the 5 months that I have had them. We use them, two compost bins and a pair of chooks to reduce our waste and I feel great about having 0 organic matter going into the bin. Every house should have worms.

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

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